Lost in Shangri-la

Lost in Shangri la On May twenty four American servicemen and WACs boarded a transport plane for a sightseeing trip over Shangri La a beautiful and mysterious valley deep within the jungle covered mountains o

Title: Lost in Shangri-la

Author: Mitchell Zuckoff

ISBN: 9780062072825

Page: 186

Format: Audio

On May 13, 1945, twenty four American servicemen and WACs boarded a transport plane for a sightseeing trip over Shangri La, a beautiful and mysterious valley deep within the jungle covered mountains of Dutch New Guinea.Unlike the peaceful Tibetan monks of James Hilton s bestselling novel Lost Horizon, this Shangri La was home to spear carrying tribesmen, warriors rudOn May 13, 1945, twenty four American servicemen and WACs boarded a transport plane for a sightseeing trip over Shangri La, a beautiful and mysterious valley deep within the jungle covered mountains of Dutch New Guinea.Unlike the peaceful Tibetan monks of James Hilton s bestselling novel Lost Horizon, this Shangri La was home to spear carrying tribesmen, warriors rud to be cannibals.But the pleasure tour became an unforgettable battle for survival when the plane crashed Miraculously, three passengers pulled through Margaret Hastings, barefoot and burned, had no choice but to wear her dead best friend s shoes John McCollom, grieving the death of his twin brother also aboard the plane, masked his grief with stoicism Kenneth Decker, too, was severely burned and suffered a gaping head wound.Emotionally devastated, badly injured, and vulnerable to the hidden dangers of the jungle, the trio faced certain death unless they left the crash site Caught between man eating headhunters and enemy Japanese, the wounded passengers endured a harrowing hike down the mountainside a journey into the unknown that would lead them straight into a primitive tribe of superstitious natives who had never before seen a white man or woman.Drawn from interviews, declassified U.S Army documents, personal photos and mementos, a survivor s diary, a rescuer s journal, and original film footage, Lost inShangri La recounts this incredible true life adventure for the first time Mitchell Zuckoff reveals how the determined trio dehydrated, sick, and in pain traversed the dense jungle to find help how a brave band of paratroopers risked their own lives to save the survivors and how a cowboy colonel attempted a previously untested rescue mission to get them out.By trekking into the New Guinea jungle, visiting remote villages, and rediscovering the crash site, Zuckoff also captures the contemporary natives remembrances of the long ago day when strange creatures fell from the sky A riveting work of narrative nonfiction that vividly brings to life an odyssey at times terrifying, enlightening, and comic, Lost in Shangri La is a thrill ride from beginning to end.

Lost in Shangri La Lost in Shangri La is a non fiction book by American author Mitchell Zuckoff about a US military airplane called The Gremlin Special, which crashed on May , in Netherlands New Guinea, and the subsequent rescue of the survivors Because it involved a female WAC Corporal lost in the jungle with savages, the public became keenly Lost in Shangri la A True Story of Survival, Adventure A lost world, man eating tribesmen, lush andimpenetrable jungles, stranded American fliers one of them a dame withgreat gams, for heaven s sake , a startling rescue mission This is atrue story made in heaven for a writer as talented as Mitchell Zuckoff Whew what an utterly compelling Lost in Shangri La Books Lost in Shangri La Escape from a Hidden World A True Story by Zuckoff, Mitchell March , Paperback Lost in Shangri La Excerpt Read free excerpt of Lost in Excerpt Lost In Shangri La The cabin crumpled forward toward the cockpit The walls of the fuselage collapsed as though sucked inward Both wings ripped away. Lost in Shangri La Escape from a Hidden World A True Buy Lost in Shangri La Escape from a Hidden World A True Story by Mitchell Zuckoff ISBN from s Book Store Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. Lost in Shangri La LOST BASED ON NOVEL LOST HORIZON Jon H said From the Wiki entry on Lost Horizon, another similarity seems to be not just the plane crash, but that the plane was not where it was supposed to be when it crashed. Lost In Shangri La Download Pdf ePub Ebook Lost In Shangri La This book list for those who looking for to read and enjoy the Lost In Shangri La, you can read or download Pdf ePub books and don t forget to give credit to the trailblazing authors. Lost in Shangri La on Apple Books A New York Times bestseller and the winner of the Winship PEN New England Award, Lost in Shangri La is a truly incredible adventure New York Times Book Review about three brave survivors of a WWII plane crash in the jungle On May , , twenty f

About “Mitchell Zuckoff”

Mitchell Zuckoff

Mitchell Zuckoff is a professor of journalism at Boston University He is the author of Lost in Shangri La A True Story of Survival, Adventure and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II His previous books are Robert Altman The Oral Biography, one of s Best Books of 2009 Ponzi s Scheme The True Story of a Financial Legend, a New York Times Editors Choice book and Choosing Naia A Family s Journey, which received the Christopher Award and was named a Massachusetts Honor Book He is co author of Judgment Ridge The True Story Behind the Dartmouth Murders, which was a finalist for the Edgar Award.Zuckoff s magazine work has appeared in The New Yorker, Fortune, and other national and regional publications He is a former special projects reporter for The Boston Globe, where he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for investigative reporting He received the Distinguished Writing Award from the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the Livingston Award for International Reporting, the Heywood Broun Award, and the Associated Press Managing Editors Public Service Award, among other national honors He lives outside Boston.

263 thoughts on “Lost in Shangri-la”

"The cabin crumbled forward toward the cockpit. The walls of the fuselage collapsed as though sucked inward. Both wings ripped away. The tail section snapped off like a balsa-wood toy. Flames shot through the wreckage. Small explosions rang out like gunshots. Black smoke choked off the light. The air grew bitter with the stench of burning metal, burning leather, burning rubber, burning wires, burning oil, burning cloths, burning hair, burning flesh."It wasn't easy getting a seat on the Gremlin S [...]

I bet you watched at least some TV coverage of the rescue of Chilean miners in 2010. The whole world did. In 1945 there was comparable interest in a remarkable rescue. People followed the search and then the rescue attempts for weeks. But a few small events, like the first use of nuclear weapons and the subsequent end of the war, pushed the story out of the public eye. While researching another project, Mitchell Zuckoff happened across this story, actually located one of the survivors, and has r [...]

I have said it before, and I'll say it again: The jungles of the earth must be DESTROYED. ** Before you break your fingers on your keyboard in your haste to flame me for that comment take a moment to ask yourself if I might be joking.In the last months of World War II as America worked its way towards Japan a plane load of military personnel took off for a sightseeing tour of a remote valley in New Guinea that had been dubbed Shangri-La. Previous flights had noted tribes of natives numbering in [...]

The story is compelling enough: a U.S. army plane crashes in a remote, inaccessible part of New Guinea killing nearly everyone on board. Three people survive, two men and a woman. Two are severely injured. They need to trek through the jungle to a clearing, so they can be spotted and rescued. Rescuers will have a tough time not only getting in, but due to the geographic problems, getting them out will be near impossible.Did I mention that the area is inhabited by war-like Stone-Age cannibals? I [...]

How is this not a Hollywood epic movie? WWII Plane crash in the jungle; survivors include a beautiful, plucky, injured WAC; Stone Age lost civilization; rescue mission by paratroopers; tabloid exploitation by news media and government; impending loss of “innocence” as the modern world intrudes into “Shangri-La”. All of it true and expertly covered in the Four Star Lost in Shangri-la: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War IIa. Highly reco [...]

The only regret I have about reading Lost in Shangri-La now is that I can't put it on a library best list until December 2012. It was that good!You'd think with all the stories written with regards to World War II that all had been told. And then along comes another and you're amazed that you never heard anything about this one. Lost in Shangri-La is such a story. On Sunday, May 13, 1945, Colonel Peter Prossen planned a special outing for some of his staff, a flight to view a remote valley known [...]

I read a great deal of non-fiction mostly history, military, and political science. After completing graduate school with a degree in international relation and an undergraduate degree in history. I have a set idea of how nonfiction should be written and that it must be cited and documented. When I have a book in my hand I frequently flip back and forth from the book to the citations and notes. It gives me the confidence that what is written is true and verified. So naturally, I am turned off wi [...]

Shangri-La. What exactly is that?! I had always assumed that Shangri-La referred to either the all-girl pop band from the 60s, or was a generic name for seedy motels of questionable repute (ie Andrew McCarthy's very bad TV movie, The Courtyard). I was unexpectedly enlightened when I recently picked up Mitchell Zuckoff's book, Lost in Shangri-La: Escape from a Hidden World, A True Story.Shangri-La was a fictional valley in the Himalayas created by James Hilton in his 1933 novel entitled Lost Hori [...]

Here’s what I liked about this book: the author did his research and stuck to the facts. If there was snappy dialog, it was from a letter or a diary or an interview. And the characters were interesting. There were the three survivors of the crash: a beautiful, unconventional WAC; a brave leader who just lost his twin brother; a stoic guy with really awesome one-liners. And there was the young paratrooper with something to prove sent to rescue them. The author didn’t make stuff up. But unfort [...]

Lost in Shangri-La is a simple, enjoyable story about a tragic plane crash and a subsequent rescue mission. It's a little slow at the start but after initial character introductions it's a smooth read. The prose is straightforward, effective, and doesn't contain overwhelming details; just enough to engage your imagination (although at some points in the book I wished for more detail about the lives of the natives). This may not be the greatest survival story ever but it's quite an interesting ad [...]

Smashing nonfiction story about a few plane crash survivors in WWII New Guinea and the increasingly ludicrous efforts to get them out of the hidden cannibal-infested mountain valley they landed in. It has basically nothing to do with James Hilton's Lost Horizon, the book that invented "Shangri-La"; that place was in Tibet. But with a story this terrific, all a writer has to do is stay out of its way. Zuckoff almost pulls that off, but he can't quite get his boner out of it.Because he can't at al [...]

This book is SO not what I was expecting. A plane goes down in New Guinea in WW2 and only 3 people survive and have to find a way out of the jungle surrounded by cannibals stuck in the Stone Age and perhaps rogue Japanese soldiers. Shouldn't that be exciting? It should, but this book is strangely unemotional, disconnected and boring. What tension the author tries to inject is obviously manufactured. I really wanted to like this book, but it is a strong 1 1/2 stars.

I wasn't expecting much from this book. I had read a book similar in location and issue, "Savage Harvest" by a completely different author about Michael Rockefeller going missing many decades ago, but after the events in this book occurred. That book was rather terrible, so I didn't have much hope that this one would be any better. I was completely, 100% wrong. This book is AMAZING. It deals with WWII, which is my all-time favorite historical time to read about, so it rang that bell. It was abou [...]

Grab some "Color-by-color" hard candies (reds, greens, yellows, and so on), start sucking and start reading this book! Wow--What an adventure ride. My GOD!!! I thought I was waiting to read this book WHY???I KNEW I wanted to read this book (the first week it was released when I just happened to be in Barnes and Noble and discover it myself 'before' hearing others talk about it).Why did I wait?I had just read "Unbroken" by Laura HillenbrandI also read"Even Silence Has An End" by Ingrid Betancourt [...]

Lost in Shangri-la tells the true story of the fatal plane crash in May, 1945 of 24 U.S. Army servicemen and WAC's on a pleasure tour of the remote New Guinean jungle with only 3 survivors. This incredible story details their encounter with the local natives, their horrific life-threatening injuries, and the dangerous conditions of the rescue mission while still adding in a bit of humor. Amazing historical read!

If you like pork and sweet potatoes maybe you would have liked living among the New Guinea natives back in the 30s or 40s, or if you liked tropical jungles that look like paradise, you may love living in one, but you would also have to worry about jungle rot, malaria, elephantiasis, and dengue fever just to mention a few. I rather wished that I lived in the jungle, but a tame one without jungle rot…Well, the first chapter put me in a deep funk, which was totally unexpected. All I knew about th [...]

Too many extraneous details. Author was not good as the audiobook narrator.This is a true story - a good story. I liked the substance of it. But I’m not sure I liked the things the author chose to put in the story. It was more like journalism than a story. I’ve read other authors who take facts and make them into an engaging story. This one needed some changes if that’s the goal. But I was very engaged during the last 2/3.My complaints:1. The author did too much background detail on variou [...]

Find this and other reviews at: flashlightcommentary.I'm not sure who decided to dub Mitchell Zuckoff's Lost in Shangri-La a thrill ride in the blurb, but I respectfully disagree with the assessment. I mean no offense, but the book put me to sleep on multiple occasions and that's not an experience I associate with heart-pounding, adrenaline inducing excitement.To be clear, I liked the content. There's a certain novelty to the subject matter and I enjoyed digging into a story that isn't particula [...]

(Really more 3.5 stars)I thought I was done reading books set in New Guinea but when I was flying home the only book that sounded interesting on my iPad was this story about a plane that crashes into the Baliem Valley of New Guinea during World War 2. I know the Baliem Valley because that is where the Dani people live, and I have read multiple books about them. They are the group Michael Rockefeller photographed before traipsing into the jungle for art, that Peter Mattheiessen wrote about in the [...]

This is one of the most unusual stories from World War II that I have read! In 1945, a plane carrying 24 members of the U.S. military and Women's Army Air Corps crashed in a remote jungle area in Guinea. The three survivors had no food, water, or supplies. Two of them had serious injuries. The area was so inaccessible that the native tribes who were living in primitive conditions there had never seen a white person. Japanese troops also occupied much of the surrounding area. Rescue planes could [...]

Three people survive when a plane goes down in a very remote jungle containing natives at constant war with each other. The problem for the Americans is how to get them out when there is no landing field and the three survivors are unable to walk out because of their injuries. This was very interesting. The author gathered his facts, journals, news clippings, personal letters and assembled them into this story. Committment and good old fashioned ingenuity never ceases to amaze me when they make [...]

Lost In Shangri-LaBy Mitchell ZuckoffPublished by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishersIn Lost In Shangri-La, author Mitchell Zuckoff takes readers on a sensational and extraordinary true-life journey. On May 13, 1954, a C-47 military plane called the Gremlin Special, carrying 24 service men and women on a sightseeing expedition to the fabled valley of “Shangri-La”, crashed deep in the jungle of Dutch New Guinea. Unbelievably, three of the passengers survive: Women’s Army Corps (WA [...]

Even today, after they have been on television, the Dani and Yali people of the Beliem Valley in Western New Guinea are still primitive, unabsorbed by modern life. In 1945, they could only account for white people showing up as the beginning of the end of days described in their creation mythology.The U.S. Army Air Force stationed on New Guinea called the valley Shangri-La when they accidentally found it and saw the neat villages and row crops laid out on the green valley floor. Being Americans, [...]

What an amazing story - a plane filled with "sightseeing" servicemen and WACs crashes in what they think is a hidden valley (except it's actually one valley over), and only three people survive. One has a severe head injury and burned buttocks, one has burned feet, hands, face and legs, and the other is seemingly unharmed. They escape the crash site, hidden in the jungle, and make it to a clearing where they meet Stone Age tribesmen who don't kill them, and after a few days are found by a search [...]

This is a fantastic look at one of the lost stories of World War II. Though the story garnered brief worldwide attention in 1945, the details soon were lost in the bigger picture of the Allied victory in the war. Zuckoff takes many characters and gives each one depth and detail, then weaves their stories into one epic tale. After reading the book, I feel like I know the characters. Additionally, Zuckoff paints such a vivid picture of New Guinea that it seems I have visited the exotic locale.This [...]

I expected to like this more than I did. At times very compelling, ultimately the story seemed rushed somehow, and ended on a sad note as the author detailed the lives of those involved following their return from New Guinea. The story of the natives following this incident was also quite sad.

I am a sucker for WWII stories and I have been dying to read this book every since I saw the title pop up on my kindle. The book isn't just about the survival of three people from a plane crash in Papua New Guinea it is also about a race and culture that was still basically living in the stone age.The story starts off with 24 enlisted personnel winning a chance to fly over "Shangria-La" as part of a way to boast morale on the military base Hollandia. Mitchel introduces all 24 personnel along wit [...]

Listen to the audio version on a trip from Las Cruces to Dallas and back for Christmas. I picked this book because my in-laws were with us and I wanted something we would all be interested in and a book we could finish on the trip (without having to listen non-stop). This turned out to be a great choice. Everyone enjoyed the narration by the author. My father-in-law who listens to a LOT of audio books said he thought this was one of the best narrations he's heard. The pacing of the story is grea [...]